XL: "Invalid Page Fault" Pasting Linked Text from MS Word

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you copy text from Microsoft Word and paste it to Microsoft Excel, you may receive one of the following error messages.

Microsoft Excel 97

   Excel caused an Invalid Page Fault in module Kernel32.dll at
   0137:bff858cd

   NOTE: If you are running Microsoft Windows 95 in Safe mode, you receive
   the following error message:

      Excel excecuted an invalid instruction in module <unknown> at
      0000:00000017

Microsoft Excel 7.0

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module EXCEL.EXE at
   0137:50018fd6

CAUSE

This behavior may occur if the following conditions are true:

• In a Microsoft Word document, you copy text that resembles a formula or function in Microsoft Excel.

  This includes text that begins with an equal sign (=), a minus sign (-), a plus sign (+), or the at sign (@). This text is interpreted as a valid formula or function in Microsoft Excel.

      -and-
  

• In Microsoft Excel, you click Paste Special on the Edit menu, click Text, and then click OK to paste the text into a cell.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, change the text so it does not resemble a valid formula or function in Microsoft Excel before you copy the text from Microsoft Word. You can do this by excluding the beginning symbol as part of the selection.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.